Should puerh be aged?

kasey wrote:I'm probably opening up a can of worms here, but I'd like to bring this up.Exposing a plant (after it's picked) to oxygen harms the plant's medicinal properties. Any herbalist will confirm this. But apparently, something about the way puerh is produced arrests the aging process. However, as an herbalist, I simply cannot believe that puerh totally resists the deterioration of polyphenols with age. What I am implying is that fresh young pu is most likely much higher in polyphenols than naturally aged pu.Ripened pu may be a different story. The way it is piled and stored in a humid environment affects its entire biochemistry, since it excites the growth of bacteria which may (or may not) be beneficial to us. Who knows? This is a new technology, if you can call it that. There's not a man alive who can confirm that ripe puerh is a healthy drink. So how will we ever know whether raw or ripe puerh is better for us?We won't.But I must conclude that naturally aged pu is probably not much good and we're better off drinking green tea or oolong if we want flavor.

Okay - I quoted the whole thing so I could look back on it.

question one: Have you ever had 'naturally aged' pu? Do you even know what that means?

question two: How can you conclude such things without the proper research? Show me some facts, dude.

statement: There are a lot of us here who drink tea because it tastes good, not because of it's health benefits which we may or may not believe. There are tea enthusiasts here, not teavana customers.

Another statement: If you want to talk about the flavour of tea - that's fine, but do some research! and if you don't like puerh for whatever reason, that's okay, I won't judge you - again though - please do some research and show us what you've found.

The question is why do you drink what you do. I'm a pu-erh novice, I'm drinking it because I enjoy the taste, plus the experience of the differences that I can taste in the years, type, locations etc is very appealing. The health benefit if any are just an added plus.

ciphoto wrote:The question is why do you drink what you do. I'm a pu-erh novice, I'm drinking it because I enjoy the taste, plus the experience of the differences that I can taste in the years, type, locations etc is very appealing. The health benefit if any are just an added plus.

kasey wrote:This is a new technology, if you can call it that. There's not a man alive who can confirm that ripe puerh is a healthy drink. So how will we ever know whether raw or ripe puerh is better for us?We won't.But I must conclude that naturally aged pu is probably not much good and we're better off drinking green tea or oolong if we want flavor.

I'm sorry, sir, but I must disagree with you. There have been multiple studies where health benefits were uncovered. To name a few: lowering blood pressure, digestion aide, and a natural anti-oxidant. To address another point you brought up: "not a man alive that can confirm... blah blah blah." Sorry, sir. Wrong. Pu-erh and other teas have been drunk for hundreds of years. That's a LOT of people. Third point, the non sequitur of "drinking green or oolong if we want flavour." Flavour? What happened to the health benefits tangent? And, furthermore, if one were to actually experience pu-erh (which, you may or may not have) one will find that it indeed has plenty of flavour.

I'm a medical professional, and I would love to see precisely where you're getting your information from. Please, indulge me. For science is made up of cold, hard facts. Show me yours, and I may concede to them. Until then, pu-erh will always remain in my cup.